International Projects

Introduction

As the first Australian E-Club we have members living in different parts of the world who are running or facilitating important international projects. This makes us unique, with a diverse range of activities touching the lives of people in dozens of countries.

Our club has nine active RAWCS registered International Projects. We have projects specific to: Timor Leste, Uganda, DR Congo (2), Kenya and Cambodia, together with 3 worldwide projects that have provided assistance in the last year to Fiji, PNG, Kiribati, the Philippines, Cambodia, Laos, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Thailand in our region and, in Africa to Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, DRC, Malawi, Madagascar and Sierra Leone.

22-2006-7 Sewaid International Worldwide

SewAID is a program which offers selected women in very poor countries the opportunity to not only learn to sew, but to also provide them with the machines, equipment and skills they need to start a small home business in dressmaking, alterations and repairs.

The SewAID program is primarily a teaching program and we rely heavily on our wonderful volunteer teachers who donate their time and expertise as well as fund their

own travel to each program, dedicated to providing the skills, knowledge and equipment so these poor women so they can make a better life for themselves and their family.

7-2009-10 School for Life Foundation Uganda

School for Life Foundation (SFL) is an Australian non-government organisation seeking to transform developing communities through providing high-quality education, health care, clean water, vocational training, employment and infrastructure. Under the leadership of Founder and Club member Annabelle Chauncy, the foundation seeks to provide innovative and sustainable tools to break the cycle of poverty.

Currently, SFL operates 2 schools at Katuuso in Mpigi, Uganda. The schools provide access to high quality primary education to 400 students, as well as providing health care and clean water to over 1,500 residents of the village. The school promotes the value of equal opportunity; allowing both boys and girls to attend the school, including those with special needs. The school also provides employment to over 80 Ugandan staff including teachers, cooks, builders and security guards as well as providing accommodation for its teachers.

47-2009-10 Medical Equipment Project Worldwide

This project began with a visit to Goroka Provincial Hospital, PNG Highlands, in 2008, by Sue O’Neill and Dave & Kerry Rickards. They saw a great pile of old, rusting equipment out the back of the hospital that had been sent to PNG at enormous expense, but had never, or only briefly been in working service. Primarily this was redundant, older equipment sent from Australia in good faith by well-meaning Rotarians, but there was no resident knowledge on how to install, train or maintain. Being older equipment there were no spare parts available.

The cost of getting heavy, antiquated donated medical equipment from Australia was, in some instances, no cheaper than buying brand new mass produced new age, simple to commission, life-saving equipment from China and USA. And so a project was set up in 2009 which has now delivered over 2,000 medical devices into more than 40 countries in the developing world.

The flagship item is a Portable Ultra Sound Scanner. More than 500 units have been distributed. In many cases training courses are arranged before the clinic or hospital takes possession. Thousands of mothers and babies lives have been saved by providing this technology to places where it never would have gone otherwise.

Other Equipment includes:

· Vital Signs Monitors

· Patient Monitors

· Pulse Oximeters

· ECGs

· Oxygen Concentrators

· Foetal Dopplers

Over the years Rotarians from right around Australia have facilitated the cartage of equipment to end destination as personal luggage when travelling.

50-2011-12 Sustainable Villages Oecusse Timor Leste

SVO is an empowerment project in the isolated, impoverished region of Oceusse. The objectives are:

1. To assist villagers to make informed decisions and design site-specific strategies to reduce the impacts of environmental degradation on their village life style.

2. Reduce incidence of water borne disease, provide potable water.

3. To promote reforestation in catchments therefore decrease erosion and water turbidity.

An additional, and highly successful program to engage young people and promote environmental awareness is the Youth-in-Action GREEN Games, an annual event which attracts over 1000 participants.

Club member Judith Charnaud runs the program and lives there in harsh conditions.

17-2014-15 Maternal and Child Health (MACH) Worldwide

MACH is a consolidation of more than 12 individual projects that had previously been managed by a number of different Rotary Clubs around the country.

There are 4 pillars to the MACH cluster of Maternal and Child Health projects:

The objective of MACH is to partner with local organisations in the poorest countries that have demonstrated capability and passion to provide genuinely cost effective and sustainable outcomes in our target areas. MACH currently works in Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia.

72-2013-14 Kisaru Nkera Initiative (KINI) Kenya

KINI is a community project in the Trans Mara region of Kenya which provides support to Maasai children and their families through education, health care services, community programs and maintenance of a safe environment. Rtn Barbara Parkins lives on site and only occasionally gets home to see family and raise funds.

20-2013-14 Lotumbe Community Development Democratic Rep. of Congo

The territory of Ingende, in which Lotumbe Village is located, is a vast area in what is the world’s second largest rain forest. Food traditionally found in the forest and rivers is being depleted by the numbers of refugees displaced by war and ongoing conflict.

HandUp Congo http://www.handupcongo.org/ in collaboration with Rotary Australia World Community Service and other project partners, works with the Lotumbe community on a wide range of capacity- building projects.

In spite of being accessible only canoe or forest paths, Lotumbe is a rural hub, with K-12 schools and a reference hospital. A population of 87,976 accesses these social services, which are only made possible by civil society due to the country’s weak government.

Rotarian Lucy Hobgood-Brown’s father was born in this village, and Lucy lived there as a child. She regularly takes volunteer teams to this province, to work with Congolese colleagues on such projects as sustainable beekeeping, literacy, duck and fruit tree planting (sales from the eggs and fruit pay for Pygmy orphans’ school tuition), and women’s micro credit.

47-2015-16 Building a Healthy Congo Democratic Rep. of Congo

A Congo Emergency Medicine Education Project is underway in the DRC, developing a train the trainer program for emergency medical care through the Université Protestante au Congo (UPC www.upcongo.org) and selected educational and medical teaching institutions. E-Club member and Emergency Medicine specialist Dr Vera Sistenich leads this initiative, and has travelled three times to the DRC. She has trained more than 400 doctors and nurses, and continues to facilitate resources such as a video on basic Emergency Medicine principles, based on the African Federation of Emergency Medicine’s ‘Keystone Curriculu’. The E-Club’s Medical Equipment Project along with other supporting foundations have provided vital equipment such as training mannequins and ECGs.

1-2016-17 Feeding Dreams Cambodia

Feeding Dreams was established in 2012 and enjoyed support from many Rotary clubs in Sydney and Brisbane prior to its registration as an official RAWCs project in on July 1st 2016.

Feeding Dreams Cambodia is a grassroots Community School providing free quality education and daily meals for over 800 impoverished children from the poorest parts of Siem Reap, from kindergarten to young adults. Classes include English language, Math, Computer, Morality and Sport. Each student is awarded Ministry of Education certified qualifications for courses completed.

We strive to keep families united, fight poverty, illiteracy and malnutrition, and help grow tomorrow's community leaders. We also offer university scholarships and ongoing support to the older students so they have the chance to receive a tertiary education, while our Dreams Training Centre offers vocational education and job placement in the hospitality industry.

The Australian Rotarians have championed the Feeding Dreams Cambodia programs, we have benefitted from the Rotary international network of business, professional and community leaders who strive to make the world a better place through practical efforts. Aside from grants and donations, individual Rotarians have offered their skills and expertise, assisting us in our accounting, HR policies, architectural advice, management and personnel training and often, emotional support and encouragement when things get tough for us on-ground.

Collectively the Rotary clubs across Australia have supported the building of our training centre, several of our classrooms, our bike shed, built numerous homes for desperately poor families, contributed to the food program and supported the elderly, sponsored several of our brightest students to attend university, and most recently sponsored some our most disadvantaged youth to undertake our 12 month Vocational Hospitality Training program, and be placed in employment at 4-5 star hotels so that they can live a life above the poverty line without exploitation.

Additional International Service Activity

Days For Girls

In addition to the registered projects listed above, our club is heavily engaged in Days for Girls initiatives, often in conjunction with SEWAID project (see above), where women are provided with equipment, materials and skills to produce hygiene pads. Rtn Alacoque Walsh has made a number of trips to Fiji in the last year.

Thrive Madagascar

E Club Rtn Brendon Singhdeo is the founder of Thrive Madagascar, which is not a registered RAWCS project but has very close affiliations with a number of Central Coast Clubs. Two young volunteer doctors have just completed a 3 month clinic for Thrive. They have been supported by members of the E Club.

District Activities

With so much international project involvement by its members there is a lot of interaction with other clubs in the district, particularly on the Central Coast. Our 2015-16 President PP David Dean is the current district chair for the Rotary Foundation.

More information on Projects

Please go to the following “Member Project’s” Tab to read about each in detail.

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